Canal+ acquired the remaining minority stake in Showmax before shutting the streaming service down, taking €37-million of accumulated losses back onto its own shareholders’ equity in the process.

The transaction is disclosed in a footnote to the statement of changes in equity in Canal+’s half-year results, published on Tuesday. The group records the acquisition of the remaining non-controlling interests in Showmax “prior to its closure”, resulting in the derecognition of a negative non-controlling interest of €37-million, recognised directly in equity attributable to shareholders.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal held 30% of Showmax under the joint venture struck in 2023, and MultiChoice Group CEO David Mignot confirmed in February that Canal+ was in active discussions with Comcast about the platform’s future.

It appears to be the first accounting disclosure of that deal. TechCentral reported last month that Canal+ had never said what it paid NBCUniversal to dissolve the venture. The results still do not give a price. What they do show is what the transaction did to the balance sheet.

When a subsidiary accumulates losses, the minority shareholder’s share is charged against its stake. Under IFRS accounting rules, that allocation continues even after the stake has been exhausted, pushing the balance into deficit. By the time Canal+ moved, the Showmax minority was carried at negative €37-million – its share of losses had run past everything it had put in.

That deficit was working in Canal+’s favour, representing losses charged to the minority rather than to the parent. Buying out the stake meant derecognising it. Because acquiring a minority interest is treated as a transaction between shareholders rather than a trading event, the €37-million bypassed the income statement entirely and came straight off equity attributable to Canal+ shareholders.

Interests diverged

The only cash movement of its kind in the period is a €1-million line for the acquisition of non-controlling interests, against nil a year earlier. Canal+ does not say what that line relates to, and there were other minority movements during the half, including the disposal of its Vietnamese operation.

Winding up a joint venture generally requires the partner’s agreement, and sole ownership removes the need to negotiate each step of a closure with a shareholder whose interests have diverged.

Read: Netflix, e.tv look to fill the gap Showmax left behind

The results also record a credit note received in settlement of outstanding contractual agreements relating to Showmax, which Canal+ says produced a favourable adjustment to previously recognised content costs and liabilities. The line it sits in shows a positive €28-million.

There was also a substantial tax benefit in play. The closure generated a €48-million once-off tax gain, which turned a €31-million operating loss into a €15-million net gain from Showmax over the period. Canal+ does not link the tax treatment to the change in ownership.

Showmax generated €11-million of revenue before ceasing operations at the end of April, against €23-million in the same period of 2025 on a combined basis. Its adjusted loss before interest, tax and exceptional items narrowed to €21-million from €52-million – though the platform traded for only four months of the current period against six in the comparative.

Below that line, the cost of closing it is visible. Content costs of €69-million included a €44-million impairment of content assets and a €14-million net charge for onerous agreements. Cash consumption rose sharply: Showmax absorbed €70-million over the reporting period, against €39-million a year earlier, as wind-down payments were made.

The minority shareholder took €13-million of Showmax’s losses in the period, disclosed within earnings attributable to non-controlling interests – the last such allocation before the stake changed hands.

For the 2025 full year, Canal+ has said Showmax dragged €92-million off combined adjusted Ebit and €29-million off net earnings. The platform was relaunched in February 2024 on NBCUniversal’s Peacock technology, with the partners committing about US$177-million in equity funding for MultiChoice’s year to March 2024 alone. Canal+ announced the shutdown on 5 March, branded the platform an “expensive failure” days later and closed it at the end of April. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media